Javier Fernández Contreras, PhD, is an architect and architectural theorist who serves as the Head of the Department of Space Design/Interior Architecture at HEAD – Genève. His work explores the relationship between architecture, representation and media, with a specific focus on the role of interiors in the construction of contemporaneity. He holds a Master’s degree in Architecture and a PhD in Architectural Theory (summa cum laude) from ETSAM at the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
Contreras is the director of several academic and research programs, including MAIA (Master of Arts in Interior Architecture), Switzerland’s first MA program in the field, which explores contemporary interiors at the intersection of space, ecology and media; Scènes de Nuit, a research platform investigating the relationship between night and space while questioning architecture’s daylight paradigms; The Interiors of Social Media, a project that examines the impact of social media platforms on contemporary architecture, focusing on interior spaces as sites of consumerism and display; and The Future of Humanitarian Design (HUD), a program that integrates design and political science to jointly address the growing challenges of humanitarian action, in collaboration with the Geneva Graduate Institute, the University of Copenhagen and the EssentialTech Centre at EPFL.
Contreras regularly publishes in a variety of specialized books and journals. He is the author of The Miralles Projection (AR+D, 2020); Manifesto of Interiors: Thinking in the Expanded Media (HEAD – Publishing, 2021; Puente Editores, 2022), which was selected for the XVI BEAU—Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism; and The Interiors of Social Media (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2026; Puente Editores, 2026). He is the co-editor of Scènes de Nuit: Night & Architecture (Ediciones Asimétricas, 2021), Intimacy Exposed: Toilet, Bathroom, Restroom (Spector Books, 2023), A Nocturnal History of Architecture (Spector Books, 2024), and Nothing About Interior Architecture (Set Margins’, 2025). His essays have appeared in Massilia: Annuaire des Études Corbuséennes, KoozArch, PLOT, e-flux Architecture, Burning Farm, Marie-José Van Hee Architecten, India Mahdavi, Drawing Matter, Chrysalis: The Butterfly Dream, and RADDAR, among others.
His work has earned him prizes in various international competitions, including the Concentrico Architecture and Design Festival with Prismarium (2020), a project that transformed the visual perception of the festival’s pavilion in Logroño; and the curatorial competition for F’AR, forum d’architectures in Lausanne, with the exhibition Scènes de Nuit (2019). With HEAD – Genève, recent projects include 2084: A Diorama of the Future (2024), an architectural performance on the challenges of the post-Anthropocene era, which was presented at Alcova for the 2024 Milan Design Week; Playing Fields (2022), a collaboration with the European Heritage Days and Servette Football Club that won the 2023 FRAME Award (Set Design of the Year); Space Duality (2019), a collaboration with the USM Foundation on the future of virtual reality, which in 2020 won the Red Dot Award (Brands and Communication) and the FRAME Award (Innovation category).
Contreras is the director of several academic and research programs, including MAIA (Master of Arts in Interior Architecture), Switzerland’s first MA program in the field, which explores contemporary interiors at the intersection of space, ecology and media; Scènes de Nuit, a research platform investigating the relationship between night and space while questioning architecture’s daylight paradigms; The Interiors of Social Media, a project that examines the impact of social media platforms on contemporary architecture, focusing on interior spaces as sites of consumerism and display; and The Future of Humanitarian Design (HUD), a program that integrates design and political science to jointly address the growing challenges of humanitarian action, in collaboration with the Geneva Graduate Institute, the University of Copenhagen and the EssentialTech Centre at EPFL.
Contreras regularly publishes in a variety of specialized books and journals. He is the author of The Miralles Projection (AR+D, 2020); Manifesto of Interiors: Thinking in the Expanded Media (HEAD – Publishing, 2021; Puente Editores, 2022), which was selected for the XVI BEAU—Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism; and The Interiors of Social Media (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2026; Puente Editores, 2026). He is the co-editor of Scènes de Nuit: Night & Architecture (Ediciones Asimétricas, 2021), Intimacy Exposed: Toilet, Bathroom, Restroom (Spector Books, 2023), A Nocturnal History of Architecture (Spector Books, 2024), and Nothing About Interior Architecture (Set Margins’, 2025). His essays have appeared in Massilia: Annuaire des Études Corbuséennes, KoozArch, PLOT, e-flux Architecture, Burning Farm, Marie-José Van Hee Architecten, India Mahdavi, Drawing Matter, Chrysalis: The Butterfly Dream, and RADDAR, among others.
His work has earned him prizes in various international competitions, including the Concentrico Architecture and Design Festival with Prismarium (2020), a project that transformed the visual perception of the festival’s pavilion in Logroño; and the curatorial competition for F’AR, forum d’architectures in Lausanne, with the exhibition Scènes de Nuit (2019). With HEAD – Genève, recent projects include 2084: A Diorama of the Future (2024), an architectural performance on the challenges of the post-Anthropocene era, which was presented at Alcova for the 2024 Milan Design Week; Playing Fields (2022), a collaboration with the European Heritage Days and Servette Football Club that won the 2023 FRAME Award (Set Design of the Year); Space Duality (2019), a collaboration with the USM Foundation on the future of virtual reality, which in 2020 won the Red Dot Award (Brands and Communication) and the FRAME Award (Innovation category).